


Pepper & comfort

by Valjinic



Category: Plague Tale: Innocence (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, Comfort Food, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff, hinted romance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 17:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19114138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valjinic/pseuds/Valjinic
Summary: Spoiler for Chapter 13!Hugo is missing since a week and Amicia hasn't been the same since. Melie watched her the whole time out of worry and finally decides that she has to do something to help her. And the thief already got a wonderful idea...





	Pepper & comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these beautiful characters, they’re all Asobo Studio’s property. Spoilers for the beginning of Chapter 13.

**Pepper & comfort**

 

It’s almost been a week since Hugo ran away and everyone was suffering from that loss. But it was not the whole group who suffered the worst; it was Amicia who hasn’t been the same since that morning.

At first everyone thought that she was a bit off as the aftermath of her fall and being unconscious for three days, but more days passed and she capsuled herself more and more off.

Melie watched the whole time out of worry. Since the first day when they found Amicia, she barely left the noble woman’s side then, until now.

It took the whole group every bit of strength to talk Amicia out of searching for her brother, because she needs to get every bit of rest to get better. And so Rodric and Arthur search every day for the little boy; from morning till afternoon.

But Amicia still couldn’t get any bit of rest. She sat in front of the tree every day for hours, just staring at the now lonely hanging necklace while missing out almost every meal if someone wasn’t there to get her or remind her.

That was what concerned Melie the most. Even though she could understand how it feels to not know where your brother is or if he’s alright, she also knew that it wasn’t healthy for the other young woman and that it has to stop. And so Melie slowly left her watching spot with a sigh, she couldn’t watch this suffering anymore and she knew that she had to do something to help. Amicia didn’t want to talk about it with anyone and so the thief knew that that wasn’t the right way to go.

But she already got an idea of how to help the suffering woman.

* * *

 

“I’ll cook today.”

Those were the words Melie entered the cooking area with and those earned her a horrified look of a very concerned Lucas.

“God no- Melie please don’t cook, please.”

“D’you have anything against my cooking?” The young thief pouted a bit at that reaction. She wasn’t bad at cooking, actually she was very confident about her skills there, but the others weren’t so fond of her flavoring.

“Uhm- no… no of course not. But- you know- Last time… We know that you really love pepper- but we kinda want to eat something too without having to… drown ourselves in water.” Lucas stuttered heavily, trying his best to word it as politely as possible to not make Melie upset or, in the worst case, pissed off.

“And you three call yourselves men?” Melie wasn’t upset at all. Instead she starting laughing while walking over to the big kettle, completely ignoring Lucas’ request of not cooking, “Thought guys were stronger than to cry at a little bit of spice.”

Lucas wanted to give a response to her, somehow he had to defend that little bit of honor, but forgot about that when he saw that Melie wasn’t stopped of her idea at all:

“Uhm… are you really sure that you want to cook? Really sure? I was hoping that we could get Amicia to eat something again...”

“Don’t you worry, she’ll love my soup.” Melie turned around to the young alchemist with a proud grin, but only got a skeptical look in return:

“I’m not so sure about that…”

“Tch, you just don’t appreciate my skills enough,” Melie laughed again before shaking her head, “Anyway- didn’t you also want to work on something new in your alchemy thing? Should do that while I make the food.” 

The young alchemist knew that she only brought his new project up as a convincing argument for accepting her idea, she won’t let herself get stopped after all. And so he just nodded, “Yes, it’s a time consuming experiment… so it would be the best to use this chance. But please try to not kill us, alright?”, before he left with a soft laugh.

“As if I’d kill any of you with my food,” The thief laughed to herself while searching for her favorite spice, “Would probably not be the best method either.”

* * *

 

Melie was so focused on cooking, she surprised herself with the amount of concentration she could have for cooking something. And she tried her best to make it edible for the rest of the group, but she couldn’t help but to think of the soup as too flavorless if she didn’t add more pepper.

“It can’t taste like shit if I want to get Amicia to eat something- so more pepper it is.” Was what the young woman mumbled to herself when she tried a bit of the soup, determined to make it good for the noble woman, even if the thief didn’t really realize with how much willpower and not just a bit of worry she actually worked on it.

 

The thief also didn’t notice the surprised looks coming from Arthur and Rodric, who returned earlier than usual.

“Don’t question it…” Lucas sighed and shrugged his shoulders when he arrived to greet the two and saw them with confused faces.

“But why is she so damn focused..? She didn’t even hear us yelling at her,” Rodric tilted his head, still very confused about what they saw.

Arthur didn’t seem to be surprised by his sister managing to focus on something, but rather on what she is focusing for a reason he doesn’t know.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders again and glanced at Melie: “I have no idea… but she was so persistent on cooking today, there was no way of getting that idea out of her head. Not even when I tried to use the ‘Amicia needs to eat something too argument’.”

“Man… I just hope that this level of focus helps her to not overdose the pepper this time…” Rodric shivered a bit at remembering how his throat burned last time while Arthur turned to him with an amused smile:

“You think those were bad cooking skills?”

“Yeah, you don’t?” The blacksmith’s son blinked surprised at that question and turned to the male twin.

“Hell no. I swear she fell in love with pepper when Amicia showed her that spice for the first time. It’s not bad cooking, it’s a damn love for pepper.”

“And we suffer from that love,” Lucas laughed softly and shook his head, “But we can still hope the best, right?”

And with that comment Lucas left again, the two older boys following him a few minutes later after they watched Melie for a bit longer.

 

Melie only got out of that focus a few hours later when she finished her work, raising a fist and proudly shouting “Hell yeah!” at that moment.

The next thing the thief did was to search for a bowl, which turned out to be a difficult task as the pile was nowhere to be found. So she made a mental note to herself to agree on a set place for things with the others, remembering how always is at the most different spots in that room.

And so it took a few minutes until she finally was ready to go to Amicia again, a full bowl and a spoon in her hands. Even though she hesitated for a moment, thinking of letting the others know that food is ready.

But she already heard the shouts of someone saying that they smell food, so she hurried to make her way to the tree, where she suspected Amicia still being there.

* * *

 

And there she was. The young knight’s daughter sat in front of the said tree, her back facing Melie while she stared silently at the necklace in her hands.

Melie’s heart felt heavy at this sight again, she really could imagine how Amicia must feel right now, having the urge to run through the woods to search for her brother, but not being able to due to still being weak.

The young thief leaned against a wall and watched the woman in front of her for a moment, before she shook her head and started speaking:

“You can’t just keep on sitting here without eating anything, y’know?”

Much to Melie’s surprise, Amicia actually slowly turned around to her; usually she rarely responded and just wanted to be left alone.

“Huh…? I- know…”

It was a quiet response, but still audible and enough for Melie to walk up to Amicia.

“Look… I understand how you feel. Really- I felt just as lost when Arthur didn’t come back after helping us escape… and I also had the urge to just run until I find him. So… I understand that you want to search for Hugo, but you need to get stronger again to do so. And that won’t happen if you just sit here and don’t eat anything.”

The noble woman nodded slowly, knowing that she couldn’t keep on doing that, but being bound to this place while Hugo is missing just made her feel more than helpless.

Melie sighed softly and carefully sat down next to her, handing the bowl over and earning a curious look from Amicia with the words: “Did you… make it?”

“Mhm!” The orange haired woman nodded quickly and showed Amicia a proud smile, “Spent the whole day making it. So you better like it~”

She started laughing at the end, showing the brunette that she was joking about the comment.

Said brunette got a light blush on her cheeks, feeling flustered from the effort and time Melie invested in making something for her: “Thank you… really. It’s sweet of you…”

But Melie waved it off while smiling at her: “Don’t have to thank me for that. I have to help you somehow, it’s painful to watch.”

Amicia sighed a bit in response, looking visibly upset and sorry at the last part. She already started speaking with “I’m sorry...” before being interrupted by the young thief:

“Hey- I didn’t mean to upset you, really. Don’t have to apologize ‘course, who wouldn’t feel upset there after all? Just wanted to cheer you up with this”

“You really are kind to me, you know that? I don’t think I can thank you enough for that… But if it was so painful to watch… then why did you watch over me every day…?” Amicia smiled slightly while speaking, tilting her head in confusion at the end though.

That question made Melie blush a bit at first, completely taken off guard by the fact that Amicia noticed, but she quickly caught herself again:

“Because I was worried about you, couldn’t leave you alone the whole time in case you’d feel worse...”

And before her, again flustered, conversation partner could answer, she quickly added: “B-but now you should eat already… before it gets cold.”

“Y-yeah… I will- thank you again.” The brunette nodded, glancing over to Melie to see the female thief showing her a calm smile again, before she ate a bit of the soup.

 

Only a few seconds later Amicia was coughing, but before Melie could ask her what’s wrong, the noble woman started to laugh softly and shook her head: “I- probably should have never showed you pepper-”

Melie at first was a bit worried, but that worried face got replaced with soft laughter when she heard Amicia’s laugh: “Whaaat? It can’t taste **that** bad.”

“It doesn’t taste bad at all, but I wasn’t prepared for the soup fully being made of pepper,” Amicia laughed even more, she really couldn’t be mad or upset at the taste.

Not only because it would be disrespectful of Melie’s hard work, but also because it really didn’t taste bad in Amicia’s opinion, just had a strong spicy flavor.

“Why d’you complain then? It gives the food the flavor it needs,” Just like Amicia, Melie was laughing and shaking her head. But she was very relieved as well; relieved of seeing Amicia laughing for the first time in a week and it made her feel happy.

“But not a throat **killing** flavor, Melie,” The brunette’s laugh was a genuinely happy one as she smiled at Melie while joking with her.

“Thought milady was used to flavored food?”, Melie grinned a bit at Amicia, of course hinting at Amicia’s noble and wealthy status with her comment, “It’s still decent.”

“I could have sworn that Lucas and Rodric almost cried when they tasted your food a few days ago, are you sure that it’s decent?”, Amicia grinned back at Melie and still laughed happily, gladly the grief of the past days was currently pushed back.

“They’re cowards.” Melie replied with an even bigger grin.

Amicia simply shook her head while laughing before she went back to eating, coughing from time to time while she ate.

Melie’s laugh calmed down during that time, happily watching her princess eating.

 

But after a few more bites Amicia looked up again at Melie, having realized something, which she told after she got a confused “Hm?” from the thief: “You’re not eating, Melie. You can’t scold me for not eating and then don’t eat, you know?” While speaking these words, Amicia held the bowl over to the thief to share.

Melie chuckled softly and waved her hand to decline the offer: “It’s fine, I can grab something later. But first wanted to make sure that you’re eating something, princess.”

But Amicia didn’t accept the declining and shook her head “Not counting. I won’t stop asking until you eat with me.”

“Persistent, aren’t we?” Melie grinned a bit again and moved closer to Amicia, “But only if you’re eating more than me. I wasn’t the one who basically starved for almost a week.”

The De Rune rolled her eyes before she carefully leaned against the thief: “Fine fine… just please eat something as well.”

“’Course milady,” Melie chuckled again while putting an arm around Amicia to hold her close.

 

Now both young women were eating silently. Melie tried to make sure that Amicia ate two spoons full before she took one sip, but that only worked twice. In any way, the silence gave Amicia time to think again, and her thoughts quickly went back to Hugo again.

That didn’t go unnoticed by Melie, but she didn’t ask Amicia about it until she heard a quiet sigh and noticed the other woman putting her head on her shoulder.

“You’re thinking about Hugo again, right?”

The brunette nodded slowly and leaned more into the thief, noticing how much she needed that comfort now.

“Of course… I miss him, Melie- I want to know that he’s well… and being stuck here, too weak to search for him like I should as his big sister… only makes it worse.” 

Melie carefully put her chin on Amicia’s head when she moved even closer to her, starting to rub her back as well while answering in a quiet and calm voice:

“I know, Amicia… I know that you miss him. And that it’s unbearable for you… but you need to put your own health first now. You know that you wouldn’t be any help for him if you break down.”

Amicia nodded slowly and closed her eyes while she rested against the other woman, trying to calm herself a bit and stop the tears that were starting to build up.

“I know… but I wish that I’d see at least one sign… just one sign of him being alright-”

The brunette suddenly stopped speaking when she interrupted herself with a loud sob, trying even harder now to not cry.

“It’s alright… Hey, cry if you need to… won’t tell the others, but let out what you need to. I’m here.” The young thief carefully put the bowl and spoon aside before hugging Amicia as tightly as possible, rubbing her back even more.

And Amicia let her tears and sobs out while Melie held her close to herself and whispered a few encouraging words from time to time. She even hugged Melie lightly back around her neck and buried her face into the thief’s neck when she had to cry more; and the female thief didn’t mind at all.

 

Minutes passed where the two girls just silently sat in front of the tree, hugging the other tightly. Once Amicia’s tears and sobs calmed a bit, Melie decided to speak again.

The thief whispered softly while she carefully stroke the noble woman’s hair for a bit:

“Look… let’s see how you feel tomorrow, okay? And if you feel a bit stronger, then we two will search for him in the east part of the woods.”

“Really…?” Amicia blinked a bit and slowly moved her head up to look into Melie’s calm and smiling face.

A soft blush found its way on her cheeks when she realized how close their faces were, but she was too focused on what Melie said to be flustered: “Promise that you’ll do?”

Melie nodded and smiled a bit more at her, leaning her own forehead against the brunette’s: “Mhm. Promise you that, milady. But only if you’re feeling better and Lucas gives his okay. And if not, then we still have the following days. But I’ll keep my promise of searching with you. But that also means that you have to eat more from now on, got me?”

Amicia smiled a bit at that response and slightly relaxed against the other woman. “Got you, and I will eat more… I can’t let Hugo down after all… but thank you again. Thank you… for everything.”

The thief chuckled slightly and wrapped her arms a bit tighter around the De Rune’s waist: “No need to thank me for that, I’ll keep watching over you and help you anyway. Won’t get rid of me so fast.”

“You’ll do?” Amicia blushed again and giggled softly, “For how long do you plan on being by my side then?”

“Forever and always, milady.”

 

_**The end** _

* * *

_My favorite part of this is how the boys mistake Melie’s gayness for loving spice and stubborness **.**_

But this fanfic’s origin is that I was wondering “Why is Amicia’s indicator for Melie cooking the strong pepper scent?”, here’s the answer ;-)

* * *

 

_**Bonus 1:** _

“... I can’t believe Melie’s horrible cooking actually got her a girl.”

“Don’t think that it was her cooking...”

“Really?”

“Yeah... it was probably her charming the shit out of Amicia before.”

“Or her stealing her heart like thieves usually do. Stealing stuff.”

 

_**Bonus 2:** _

**Rodric:** “Melie... do you **have** to cook today?”

 **Melie:** “Got a problem with it?”

 **Arthur:** “We can’t eat what you cook, sis.”

 **Melie:** “Well you don’t have to. Can also starve”

 **Lucas:** “I don’t think anyone likes your cooking...”

 **Melie:** “Amicia likes it.”

 **Rodric:** “.... did you curse her or something?”

 **Melie:** “You can fuck off- fine you cowards don’t have to eat. More for me and my lady then.”


End file.
